STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. . 18'5 



managed, and the introduction of lease-ridden estates. Oppressive 

 monopoly in anything is a curse to society and dishonor toward God 

 and man. But if monopolj' must exist, let it live anywhere rather than 

 in the husbandry of our country. 



There are no monopolists so arrogant, so dictatorial, so dangerous to 

 the peace and perpetuity of the State, as the overgrown, monopolizing, 

 political nabobs of the soil. Moderately large farms, well tilled, consti- 

 tute the true glory and security of a nation or State. Contiguity of 

 small farms awaken and maintain an emulation in agriculture which 

 converts valleys, hillsides, and prairies into those wonderful garden fields 

 of beauty and plenty that never fail to enrapture the eye and delight 

 the heart of need}'' and ennobled humanity'. This is the kind of agricul- 

 ture we want in California, from the partial development of which our 

 State has taken a stride in progress in eighteen years unknown to any 

 half-century of previous historical knowledge. This is the agriculture 

 which yields abundance, and from which springs those exertions of 

 genius and of art through which manuflictures originate and thrive, and 

 in the joint power of these resources of wealth is generated the most 

 powerful and enduring commerce of the world. The farms and the farmers 

 of California have been a godsend to this coast. What the silent and 

 noiseless sun and seasons have done to eliminate the promises of agricul- 

 ture, these farmers have, with equal patience and modesty, done to evoke 

 the permanent attachments, to inspire manufactures, and to lay the 

 foundation of that commerce which in one half-century will surpass any 

 interest of national or international intercourse and trade ever recognized 

 by man. But for the agriculture of California we could not have borne 

 the crisis of adversity through which we have been compelled to pass. 

 A three years premium upon our gold, a doubling of the fortunes of those 

 who would return to the East, would have well nigh depopulated the 

 State, but for those permanent and immovable interests which spring 

 from farmer-homes, from the inspiring claims of the soil and agriculture. 

 We will not underrate the minei-al and metallic resources of California, 

 but we will say that in comparison to the benefactions which agriculture 

 confers upon a State, they are irregular, unreliable, and capricious. A 

 premium upon the products of the soil, come from whence it may, leaves 

 an equivalent with the producer, whilst a premium upon gold and silver, 

 which. is our exclusive circulating medium, we have seen has too often 

 absorbed and I'emoved, not only the product and our currency capital, 

 but the producer also. 



God preserve and prosper the farmers of our country 1 With them 

 abides the true magic of our common prosperity and courage. When 

 the fascinating enchantments of mining are panic stricken with disaster; 

 when manufactures languish, and dependent operatives are gloomily 

 contemplating starvation ; when commerce is swept from the sea through 

 the merciless touch of maritime war; when the licentiousness of cit}" life 

 and cormorant fashions have well nigh consumed the honesty and energy 

 of the business classes; when the relaxations of religion and virtue have 

 communicated anemia and weakness to the body and soul of society, 

 requiring the strong tonic reassurance of nature's own best remedy ; 

 then with one accord do the invalids of interest turn with filial instinct 

 to the paternal refuge and protection of replenishing agriculture. 



And behold the sovereign magic of the view ! The valleys are seen 

 teeming with waving fields of golden-headed grain ; the hills are alive 



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